The purpose of the study was to tackle the problem of creating an orbiting lunar station in a circular low orbit with an altitude of 100 ... 150 km. The study shows that this task should be considered not as the advantage-disadvantage ratio but as the development of a specific design solution - in a methodological design approach. Meanwhile, it is necessary to take into account the strategic importance of the orbiting lunar station for the entire process of the exploration of the Moon. The station should be created not only for manned expeditions but also for automatic spacecraft. The paper describes the methodological approaches to the design of space stations, namely the design methods which imply opportunities and tasks identification, gives examples of applying these methods, points out their shortcomings, including the lack of accounting for changes in design problems. As a result of studying the problem, we propose a design method that takes into account the dynamics of changing the tasks of the designed object, i.e. the tasks that arise during the Moon exploration. The study gives an enlarged description of the method, where the starting point is many different scenarios for the design of an object, i.e. the orbiting lunar station. Relying on the proposed method, we preliminarily designed the station and found that its design determines the design of its modules. The study substantiates the development of several standard (serial) space modules designed to perform basic functions in space flight. The combination of such modules within the framework of an open architecture allows the station to quickly adapt to new tasks and operate for an unlimited time - theoretically, without a time limit.